Rogue real estate company Lesedi Developers Limited has been ordered to refund a client Sh1.5m for breaching a sale agreement and offering misleading information on the piece of land in Juja, Kiambu County.
The victim, Mr Ryan Marvin Karanja sued the Thika-based company in October last year, seeking a full refund, interest, and the cost of the lawsuit after Lesedi breached a contract under which he bought a parcel of land.
He alleged that the firm, owned by its founder and managing director, Mr Geoffrey Kiragu, sold the same land to another client at double the yet he had paid in full for the same property.
He purchased plot number 153, hived off from land reference number 17558, through a written agreement.
He paid Sh1.5 million for the land that measures 50 by 100 feet, but Lesedi Developers failed to transfer the property to him.
This prompted him to sue the company.
In his ruling, Thika Senior Resident Magistrate O. Wanyaga stated that Lesedi Developers had breached the sale agreement.
He also awarded Mr Karanja the costs of the lawsuit and interest from the date he filed the case.
This was not the first such case involving Lesedi Developers.
Over the years, the company has become synonymous with defrauding innocent victims of their hard earned cash by selling them the short end of the stick.
Last year, Dennis Kikuvi and his wife, Bernadette Wanjiru Kamau, bought land allegedly measuring 40 by 80 feet from the company in Juja for Sh600,000.
But when they approached a planner to see whether their house design would fit the land, they rudely found out that they had been duped and that the actual size of the land was 40 by 60 feet.
To make matters worse, when Mr Kivuki visited the land a few weeks later, he found another buyer, identified as Maureen Wanjiru, developing the land and claiming it had also been sold to her.
Frustrated, Mr Kikuvi reached out to his lawyer and they instigated a legal suit demanding for a full refund.
The lawyer wrote to the Lesedi Developers CEO last year, asking for the immediate return of the entire purchase price and collection fees of Sh30,000 based on fraud and misrepresentation from their end.
Under pressure, Lesedi Developers recently refunded him Sh600,000 after a long row.
That is not all.
Lesedi Developers is currently embroiled dozens of in similar disputes with other customers in the Thika Environment and Land Court.
